CISLUNAR DHASANT: THE CITY OF GARGOYLES

The damage that Cislunar has suffered comes in several forms. The first cause was the collapse of large parts of the Unders, which caused the city to suddenly drop and created earthquake-like conditions. Although in many places buildings collapsed, in others they were merely damaged or weakened. Even weeks later, roofs have suddenly collapsed or walls have crumbled, and occasional subsidence aftershocks have shaken the city. In places, the streets have been slowly sinking, and it's suspected that they may eventually collapse. The sewer system is nonfunctional because of the rubble that has fallen in it. Although the archon has forbidden it, garbage and waste matter is often dumped in the streets or in a nearby empty house, and the healers guild is warning that, as the weather warms, the city may be in danger of attracting the plague. This problem is exacerbated by the number of dead who are still unreachable beneath fallen buildings, and who are beginning to decay and smell. About 500 people are estimated to have died in the initial quake, and perhaps 200 more died of quake-related injuries (such as internal bleeding) in the weeks following. The bodies are kept for 24 hours to be identified, and then taken out of the city and burned. Immediately after the quake, this cremation fire burned steadily, causing grey ash to cover the city. Lately, it has only been lit in the evening, as fewer bodies need to be disposed of.
Food and water are short. Many of the city's supply houses were raided in the chaotic days after the quakes, although the archon has now set armed guard over what supplies remain, including the siege supplies in the castle. About half of the city wells still function÷the others were damaged or blocked by the quake, and several have been poisoned by dead bodies.
In the days immediately following the advent of the Night Sun, when Cislunarites first began drinking from the wells, large numbers fell ill from water poisoning when the sewers backed up into the water table. Several thousand people suffered diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and high fever. Of those thousands, about 700 died from the illness or complications÷mostly the elderly and the very young, and mostly those who had lost their homes or who had already been homeless when the quakes hit. The archon has set an armed guard over each operating well, and people are limited to one pailful of water per day, each. Work is in process to clear out and freshen the remaining city wells.
Three clerics, two of Caren the Healer and one Confessor of the God-King, have set up a "soup kitchen" that doles out rather flavorless conjured food and water to lines of homeless citizens. Even with this magical help, though, the demand far outweighs the supply÷the clerics simply cannot conjure enough food to feed the city. These clerics also do what they can to purify tainted wellwater or seawater.
A handful of fishermen, guarded by the archon's soldiers, go out each day to catch as many fish as they can, and have netted some rather odd specimens, indeed, apparently driven up from the ocean floor by the quake. Their haul is also distributed through the soup kitchens.
A number of farmers who survived the quake have come to the city to sell off livestock and their winter supplies, making themselves rich men in the process. Several have begun shipping water from their farm wells and rivers to the city, and they are also making quite a bit of money. There have been rumors that the archon will annex all nearby farmlands in order to feed the city's hungry and replenish the city's warehouses; these rumors have been greeted very unfavorably by the farmers whose lands and livelihoods are being threatened. Thus far, the archon has made no official comment on the rumor, although politically astute observers agree that the step will probably be necessary.
A black market has sprung up around stolen foodstuffs, and also around horse, cat, and rat, and, some say, even more unsavory meats. The archon has had to post a guard over the palace paddocks, arguing that the horses will be more useful carting supplies back and forth than filling people's stomachs. This has not been one of his more popular decrees, as people feel hunger gnawing at them. Although attempts are made to see that everyone has something to eat, perhaps 100 people, mostly the elderly or the very young, have died of starvation.
Crime runs rife. Although many of Cislunar's citizens have banded together in the recovery effort, there is still a considerable number of scoundrels who have taken advantage of the disaster to raid shops and houses and even to steal clothes and jewelry from the dead. A handful of rapists have been stalking the streets, looking for vulnerable men, women, and children who are out on their own. Others have used this time to settle old grudges, killing rivals and enemies. People have also been murdered for their clothes, food, or shelter. The archon has set up guard patrols, but a number of citizens have taken justice into their own hands, and occasionally a thief, rapist, or murderer will be found hanging dead off a light pole or roof eave. Nobody is counting the number of people who have died from criminal activity, but a rough guess would put it around 100 or so. The archon's guards are treating crime very seriously, and the archon has put the city under a state of near-martial law. Under martial law, the archon's guards can act as judge and jury, and impose the maximum punishment legally allowed. For the most part, they have been doing this. Several criminals have been executed for their crimes. (Although, it is worth noting, the archon has verbally repealed the law forbidding public preaching or worship.)
Thus, after the first month post-Theophany, Cislunar has lost almost two percent of its population. Although the fatalities in the initial quake were spread more or less evenly throughout the city, and the Northgate fire primarily affected the middle-class and some nobles, fatalities from poisoned water, starvation, and crime have taken their heaviest toll from the lower classes.
The archon's first priority is to make sure his people have food, water, shelter, and safety. His second priority is to certify as many buildings to be "safe" as possible and to move people back into them, turning private residences into boarding houses as necessary. Only when the city has stabilized somewhat will he be able to turn his attention to the fallen walls, the broken sea gates, the many civic records that were lost, and the problems of realms beyond Cislunar.

The Harbor: The harbor is littered with foundered ships, and although efforts are being made to retrieve or remove them, this has been slow work without magic. The wharfs were destroyed and the outer ring of land was pushed even higher out of the water, leaving a new length of bare, salt-scoured cliffs. The towers on the outer ring collapsed during the quake. The seagates were also badly damaged, and their repair is currently considered to be low on the city's list of priorities; invasion by sea seems unlikely in the near future, although the archon acknowledges that it is possible that other cities may not have suffered as much damage as Cislunar.
The kobkode have volunteered to do what they can to fix up the harbor, and they have been aided by various merchants and nobles whose fortunes have been tied up in transoceanic trade. It is somewhat unclear what, precisely, they plan to do, but they've been working hard to clear off the remaining wharfs, and now they have begun painting strange symbols and words all over the quay. The ambassador's explanation to the archon is that they plan to ask some heshetani to help them out÷apparently spirits of some sort.

The Walls: Cislunar's walls have crumbled down in a number of places. The stones from the walls are currently being used to repair buildings within the city itself, and in some cases people have been caught actually tearing down the walls for their stones. Such vandalism has been forbidden. Nevertheless, like the sea gates, it is expected that repairing the walls will be a matter of relatively low priority in the near future.

Dockside: Much of this area was poorly built but, ironically, that flimsy wooden construction stood up better to the quake than many of the better stone buildings in wealthier parts of town. Although Dockside is in shambles, the locals have been quick to scavenge building materials from the fallen structures to repair those that were merely damaged. In the more inland parts of Dockside, several great holes have appeared, where streets or courtyards collapsed into the sewer system or cavern complex that underlies the city. These areas are avoided with superstitious dread, although in some places gangs of Docksiders will patrol the sinkholes with clubs and knives, waiting for "Shrike an' his bleeders" to crawl out.
Several fires have burned in Dockside since the quake, probably caused by open cooking or heating fires. Large swaths of the area have been destroyed by these conflagrations, and perhaps up to 200 Docksiders have been trapped and killed by the flames.

Southgate: Southgate was badly damaged but many of the locals have banded together to rebuild, remembering the last time the area was damaged, during the Domination War. Most of the city's refugees have build a tent city outside of the walls of Southgate, so South Gate and Visionary's Gate have become important routes in and out of the city.
The Blackbriar was damaged again in the Night Sun÷one of its floors (the one in which Damion and Benedict had lived, wherein were the magical gates to other parts of Samru) was torn apart, weakening the structural integrity of the whole building. Its owners are slowly salvaging everything they can before beginning the rebuilding effort.

The Sepulchres: Many tombs were damaged in the quake, although restoring the dead to their rightful spots has been a priority for the priests who've arisen since the Theophany. It is around the Sepulchres that the "wolf" attacks have been taking place, and some have speculated that these attacks may be caused by a restless spirit whose grave was disturbed in the quake. Rescue workers digging around the rubble have uncovered several unsettling things÷odd-looking statues of alien-looking beings, coffins outside the graveyard walls, and in one place even a dungeon built into somebody's basement, complete with chains and manacles bolted to the walls.
The Reliquarium has opened its collection of holy items to anyone who can prove that he or she is a cleric of the deity whose items are being claimed, and the brothers have revealed themselves as being clerics of Thame, the god of knowledge. As the vast halls empty out, it has begun taking in refugees, letting them sleep with a roof over their head, if little else.

The Markets: The markets suffered most of the damage, as the center of Cislunar. The oval center market area collapsed into a huge sinkhole, and many prominent merchants have lost their goods either to the earthquake, the resulting fires, or to looters. Several streets are sagging and considered dangerous÷particularly Street Sixte and Quinte. More than one rescue worker has been injured or lost when a building suddenly shifted as the ground sank beneath it.

The Hill: Many of the well-built stone buildings on the Hill suffered damage, but few were actually leveled. However, the restoration work is going to take years. Greypinion Castle, Shrike's old quarters, was badly damaged inside by some sort of rupture, probably an extraplanar gate that was collapsed by the Night Sun. The castle is currently shut off until it can be inspected for safety. The Walking Statue of Cislunar has not yet moved, and it's unclear whether it came through the Night Sun intact.

Northgate: A number of houses in Northgate collapsed, and the area was further ravaged a week later by a great fire that raged from Amaranth Lane to the Scythe to the city walls before being controlled. The fire was presumed to have been started by an oil fire gone out of control in the middle of the night, and it took nearly two days to control, with a number of houses demolished to act as a firebreak. Fortunately, the high percentage of stone construction in the city slowed the fire and made it easier to handle÷the flames could only destroy roofs and inner walls and floors.
Nearly 100 people died in the Northgate fire, either victims of the fire itself or burned during the firefighting effort. Many houses were destroyed, including a number of nobles' homes. Many of those nobles (and a handful of wealthy mechants and businessmen) have since left the city, choosing to ride out to stay with friends or relatives in the country rather than live in the tent city with commoners.
The apothecaries and physicians whose hall was damaged in the fire have spread out through the city to help the wounded.

Parkside: Parkside suffered a fair amount of damage, but like the Hill, relatively few of its structures were damaged beyond repair. Many of the students who lived in or around Parkside have volunteered to help repair and straighten up the University. The Park itself was harmed by the upheavel, which turned the lake dark with dirt and uprooted many trees and rose bushes. Several statues were toppled off of the Field of Triumph's coliseum.

Stonepaen Castle: The archon's castle suffered little apparent structural damage, although repair teams are carefully going over the walls to make sure there is no hidden damage. However, its magical protections and conveniences have fallen, and steps must soon be taken to reinstate them or develop protocols to take care of duties that had once been handled by magic.

The Unders: There is no way to estimate the damage to the Unders, yet. Clearly, not all of the tunnels or caverns have collapsed, because periodically the city is shaken by another subsidence quake, and yet another street collapses.

OTHER NOTES: Although most of the hierodules in the Unders were evacuated by Halkem before the collapse, a number have become visible in the disaster-ridden city. They have been, for the most part, greeted with fear and mistrust. The archon has forbidden anyone to kill a hierodule, but several have been murdered, regardless. The Sacred Order of the Ardent Consolation hasn't helped much by calling hierodules "Shaitan's servants." On the other hand, Nicodemus Sway has done a great deal to promote the hierodules' cause within the city with his good works and, once his magic returns, healing spells. At his direction, hierodules with particularly useful abilities÷especially enhanced strength÷have started working on the rescue and rebuilding teams.
There are probably coryphei in the city, too, but only two coryphei have revealed themselves. Their mental powers were not affected by the Night Sun, so they were able to call upon them in the magic-null weeks after the disaster. They are the dark, exotic-looking Rosian Aurevilly, who had been a noted healer before and has exibited even more skill now that she isn't hiding her psychic abilities, and a rather normal-looking young man called Foxglove, who seemed to have a knack for finding people trapped in the rubble. His skills are less useful now, but he has been kept "on call."
The archon and his regent offered amnesty to anyone who used to work within the Iron Autocracy, giving them a chance to swear fealty to the throne and become citizens of Cislunar. Anyone refusing to accept this offer was given 24 hours to leave the city, and told that if they were ever found again within city limits, they would be killed as traitors. A volunteer group calling itself The Archon's Scourge has appointed itself the enforcer of this rules. At the moment, the archon is permitting the group to exist, although it does so uneasily with the archon's guard.

The archon's guard is currently very short-handed. When Shrike replaced the already-small Cislunar military with his own Tarin Tor, the archon was left only a token number of soldiers÷somewhat less than 400÷plus about 230 city guards. Now the archon has divided the surviving soldiers and guards into four groups, two active at day, and two at night. One group carries out rescue and rebuilding work, while the other stands watch or patrols the streets. Only about 20 members of Shrike's Government accepted the archon's amnesty, and they have also been put to work. Volunteer groups have supplemented the soldiers' efforts, and bade'in have been particularly useful in determing whether or not buildings are stable.

Now that magic has returned, a handful of elementalist mages have joined the archon, and the cleanup work has been proceeding much more quickly. They are Carathan, an eccentric sea mage whose presence in the city has attracted some comment from the magical cognoscenti; Linden, an earth elementalist; Jans Javal, an air elementalist; Lusitanus, a general elementalist; Robin Fairhair, an air elementalist; and Hemlock Inderal, an earth elementalist. The archon has asked Carathan to aid the kobkode in cleaning up the harbor; the other five have been helping clear away rubble. They are being careful not to further damage any gargoyles, who seem to be, for all extents and purposes, permanently "dead."